A 20-unit townhouse apartment development proposed for South Milwaukee is on hold.

Vangard Group proposed the townhouses for a 1.45-acre parcel at 909 Menomonee Ave.The city-owned site is within walking distrance of downtown South Milwaukee, and just north of Heritage Reserve condos. | Jan. 4, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(4)

The Wisconsin Department of Justice handled nearly 50,000 more background checks related to handgun purchases in 2012 than it did the year before, forcing the agency to add workers to meet the demand as gun sales continued to soar, new figures show.

For 2012, the state handled 138,164 handgun background check calls, an increase of more than 49,000 - or 55% - over 2011. | Jan. 2, 2013»Read Full Article(26)

Mortgage foreclosure filings in southeastern Wisconsin decreased for the third consecutive year in 2012 as the housing market continued to mend slowly.

Court records show there were 10,475 foreclosure filings last year in Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha counties. That's down about 2.2% from 10,709 in 2011. | Jan. 2, 2013»Read Full Article(2)

More than half of the businesses in the state's most populous counties increased sales in 2012, according to a survey by First Business Financial Services.

More than 40% of all businesses surveyed also projected increased profitability in 2013, said the survey, which was conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research. | Jan. 2, 2013»Read Full Article(8)

Women's clothing retailer Coldwater Creek is closing its store at Bayshore Town Center, in Glendale, at the end of business on Sunday, and will be replaced by an Express store.

Express, which sells both men's and women's apparel, will open by late spring or early summer, said David Moss, Bayshore general manager. He said Express has been the most heavily requested store by Bayshore shoppers. | Jan. 2, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(5)

Software developers in Madison will gather at a local startup's offices on Saturday to participate in a "hackathon" run by Foursquare, the New York location-based social networking site.

Snowshoe, a maker of mobile apps that markets an aluminum stamp designed to authenticate smartphone transactions, will host the Madison edition of the Foursquare Global Hackathon. An emerging company called hoos.in will co-host the event. | Jan. 2, 2013»Read Full Article

Wisconsin Power and Light Co. has bought the Riverside Energy Center in Beloit from Calpine Corp. for about $400 million.

Calpine, a Houston-based independent power producer, built the plant in 2004 and has sold much of its power to Madison-based WPL until now. WPL is a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corp. (LNT)| Jan. 2, 2013»Read Full Blog Post